The D-Backs’ Brandon Drury scores early in Friday’s game against the Rockies in Denver.
Martinez’s eye for details on display for D-Backs
DENVER – Alone in the dugout during a game, J.D. Martinez hunkers down on the bench, writing utensil in hand, notebook in his lap. The sight has been as common in recent weeks as that of Martinez rounding the bases after a home run.
During his six weeks with the Diamondbacks, Martinez has fashioned a reputation for having a detailoriented, mechanics-obsessed approach to hitting. He’s also provided a huge lift during a pennant race, hitting 13 homers and posting an .898 OPS.
Martinez’s every round of batting practice is recorded on video. He breaks down every movement in his swing, whether it happened before or during a game. And he takes studious notes on what he sees from opposing pitchers, recording them in what looks like a grade-school composition book, the kind with a black marble cover.
He’ll speak generally about what kind of notes he takes. But he won’t provide a glimpse.
“That’s top secret,” Martinez said. “I’ve had people try to open it. They go, ‘Let me see it,’ and I go, ‘Are you
crazy?’ ”
Such note-taking for hitters is reminiscent of a previous era, a time when every pitch of every at-bat wasn’t easily available on video. Martinez said it started for him during his first season as a professional, when then-Astros minor-league hitting coordinator, Mike Barnett, suggested it.
“I started doing it and it kind of stuck,” Martinez said. “Through the minors, people kept coming up to me and asking me, ‘J.D. what do you got on this pitcher? What did you write in your notebook on this guy?’ ”
In Martinez’s estimation, scouting reports or word-of-mouth assessments are only so useful and don’t compare to firsthand experience. He prefers his notes because they’re written in his words and trigger his own recollections.
“You can tell me that a pitcher throws a fastball and a slider, but every pitcher throws a fastball and a slider, so what separates someone’s fastball and slider?” he said. “I kind of use (the notebook) as my own eyes, like how I see their fastball and slider.”
General Manager Mike Hazen sees it as an example for the young hitters in the Diamondbacks’ farm system.
“What better way to know yourself as a player than to really evaluate your performance?” Hazen said. “That’s what we have coaches for and that’s what we try to provide in some cases, but I think it’s even more powerful when the player does it himself.”
Four years ago, Martinez rebuilt his swing from scratch and quickly became one of baseball’s most dangerous hitters. He’s been obsessed with mechanics ever since.
Hitting coach Dave Magadan said Martinez is more in-tune with his mechanics than any hitter he’s worked with.
“He knows his swing and knows what he wants to do up there,” Magadan said. “It’s much more than anybody else I’ve ever seen. He turned his career around. I’m certainly not going to argue with success.”
The club has a video coordinator filming each of Martinez’s rounds of batting practice, and Magadan said Martinez will have each of his at-bats pushed to an iPad after games. Some hitters might get bogged down with such an approach, but Martinez isn’t most hitters.
“Different strokes for different folks,” Magadan said. “What works for him may not work for somebody else. But it’s certainly worked for him.”